Pilots of Indian planes landing in Indian Kashmir are allegedly being targeted by ‘Pakistan hackers’ who are blocking their communication with the control tower and forcing them to listen to patriotic Pakistani songs, such as Dil Dil Pakistan.

According to the Times of India, hackers often tap into the frequency which Indian pilots use to communicate with Jammu Air Traffic Control (ATC) as aircrafts approach for landing. After blocking the communication, the alleged hackers start transmitting Pakistani patriotic songs on the frequency.

While revealing that this has been happening for quite some time, a senior pilot told the Indian newspaper, “We are forced to hear songs like ‘Dil, dil Pakistan, jaan jaan Pakistan.’ In such a situation, we revert to the Northern Control in Udhampur. This IAF-run ATC coordinates with aircraft when they are over 10,000 feet high and on descending below that level, we switch over to the Jammu tower.”

The Northern Control then calls up the Jammu ATC on landline to get the alternate frequency from them, he said, adding that the frequency is then forwarded to pilots which they use to communicate to Jammu on that frequency.

This provides pilots ample time to get in touch with Jammu ATC as hackers are not able to hack into the alternate frequency in time. “We use VHF, which is line of sight communication and is known as ‘if you can see us, you can talk to us.’ Due to this, hackers frequently jam our frequency with ATC and start playing their music. This is a big irritant as we are in final stage of landing,” said another pilot.

Due to these incidents, the Jammu ATC is forced to change its frequency very frequently to minimize alleged cross-border hacking.

Man I am impressed by the quality of hackers work. Although the ATC communication is just a radio frequency (which is not very difficult to hack) but finding the frequency and jamming it and re routing it with your own is impressive for a hacker.Recommend

@Lakhkar Khan:
As a Pakistani, I don’t this is something to commend as someone rightly put it, innocent lives are being jeopardized, irrespective of religion. Much more impressive though was Iran in hacking into a US drone and bringing that down virtually intact !. Can we do that ?!Recommend

What does religion has to do with playing Pakistani song? Why you brought religion into the mix? Open war has committed on Pakistan by Modi administration. The least Pakistanis can do is retaliate this way. In addition, show India they are not all that technology genius. They cannot even stop a song playing in the cockpit and claiming to be superior when it comes to information technology. Recommend